Local HAZMAT team preps for Ebola

The HAZMAT team in Northern Indiana is preparing for a potential Ebola outbreak at home.

The CDC updated requirements this week saying that healthcare workers must have full body protection and no skin showing when dealing with Ebola patients.

On Friday officials met in St. Joseph County to devise an Ebola Preparedness plan.

The HAZMAT team is ready if an infectious disease patient popped up in our area.

On Wednesday the team showed our reporter how to put on a Level A and Level B suit at the Luther Taylor Jr. Fire Training Center where they have over a hundred in stock.

Darrell Eiler said, “Then we'd put on the splash resistant goggles. Again that will keep liquids from getting in the eyes. Then this comes up over the top.”

Darrell Eiler is the team leader. He said it's important that you have a partner help you put on and take off a suit when dealing with hazardous materials.

Eiler said, “We'd put on double gloves just like this. And then the sleeve would come on the outside so if any liquid got on the suit it would just run off. Then we would tape that with duct tape or chemical tape... then we would put this rubber boot over that as extra protection because that material would tear if you're walking on it and so forth. So we would put these types of rubber boots on or a hard rubber boot on.”